Shame On the Congressional Black Caucus for Continuing the Blame Game

Carson, a Democratic congressman from Indiana and the legislative “whip” for the Congressional Black Caucus, recently made incendiary accusations about the Tea Party movement and his colleagues supporting it on Capitol Hill. Those remarks appear to lack even a scintilla of truth.

Carson’s comments are likely to only further stoke the fires of racial politics and generate unrest in a manner that Barack Obama promised to end with his election in 2008.

Instead, as liberal politicians such as Obama and Carson continue losing appeal and support when offered the tea party movement’s alternative platform of smaller government, fiscal responsibility and liberty, the race card is being played against the tea party with increasingly regularity and vigor.

In Carson’s case, he told participants at a CBC-sponsored job fair in Miami on August 22 that “some of these folk in Congress would love to see us a second-class citizens. Some of them in Congress right now — of this tea party movement — would love to see you and me… hanging on a tree.”

Appearing on CNN after the comments were posted on Glenn Beck’s The Blaze.com web site, Carson — who has served in Congress since 2008, when he virtually inherited the seat from his grandmother after her death — refused to repudiate his remarks and has not yet named any of these pro-lynching colleagues.

Surprisingly, none of the Big Three networks initially covered Carson’s over-the-top and uncivil comments. Not even MSNBC thought such radicalism was newsworthy despite the fact that the network’s “NewsNation” host, Tamron Hall, was in the room at the time — moderating the event.

It’s a stark contrast to the media’s treatment of Representative Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) in 2009 when he piped up about the dishonesty of President Obama’s proposed health care plan pitch — and it appears Wilson was right!

To make matters worse, Carson’s outburst is just one — albeit the worst — of many recent extreme accusations hurled at the Tea Party movement by CBC members. Representative Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.), for example, told people, “the real enemy is the tea party,” and Representative Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said the Tea Party can “go straight to Hell.”

It’s a stark change in demeanor from last January, after the shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). Then, Waters lectured her colleagues about how it is “essential that citizens and their representatives freely communicate and exchange ideas, even opposing opinions.”

Yet the CBC — Waters included — is now the lead shooter in a rhetorical war in which the Tea Party is in the crosshairs.

Where is the proof that the Tea Party condones racism? The NAACP spent much of 2010 searching for it, to no success. Which congressmen are fashioning nooses in their office? Andrew Breitbart’s $100,000 reward for proof that a tea partier yelled the “n-word” at CBC members during the 2010 Obamacare voting is yet to be claimed.

Shame on Andre Carson for spewing racial rhetoric rather than explaining why he and the CBC continue to support failed progressive policies that have not revived the economy nor created jobs. Shame on him for resorting to fear-mongering about the tea party movement to hold onto power.

Shame on the Congressional Black Caucus for perpetrating the blame game with its puppet roadshow job fairs that offer more of the same to people suffering under the status quo. And shame on the CBC membership for not speaking out against the heated rhetoric of their colleagues and — in the case of Carson — their leadership.

Something must be done. As lawmakers, Carson, Waters and Frederica Wilson are supposed to be role models. When they conjure up extreme rhetoric among those with whom they disagree, it serves only to stoke the flames of unrest.

At a time when economic frustrations are high and violent “flash mobs” form from the lack of legitimate opportunity, those inciting disharmony and disunity are the problem.